BYU defense simply needs to make plays


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PROVO — After suffering two straight losses, BYU seeks to get back on the winning track verse the Nevada Wolf Pack and their dual-threat quarterback senior Cody Fajardo.

The defense, which gave up 21 straight points to UCF in BYU’s 31-24 overtime loss last week, has had a lot of up-and-down moments this season through its first six games after coming into the season with high expectations.

“I think that as a defense we’re underachieving a little bit but that comes with just the little lack of experience,” said BYU linebacker coach Kelly Poppinga. “We’ve got to continue to work on our fundamentals, our execution, and we’ve got to make plays."

Making plays in critical moments of games has been a struggle for the BYU defense, and now the task is falling on many new faces due to the starting lineup changing significantly in the past two weeks because of injuries.

On the defensive side alone key starters Alani Fua, Dallin Leavitt, Craig Bills and Jordan Johnson have all been injured and have missed playing time. At this point it is known for sure that Johnson will not return after fracturing his arm against UCF and the return of Fua, while Leavitt and Bills is unknown according to BYU defensive coordinator Nick Howell Tuesday morning.

As younger players are being called upon, some have quickly started to emerge in their short time on the field and are providing the defense some much-needed contributions. Last week verse UCF players like Fred Warner, Sione Takitaki and Kai Nacua all filled in for injured players and all made plays to contribute on the defensive side.

“We knew all along all those guys were really good athletes and we just didn’t know if they could make plays. On Thursday night we learned that those guys could make plays,” said Poppinga. “Now it’s just being able to find a role for those guys especially when guys start to get healthy."

Howell explained how many of the teams the Cougars has been facing have started bringing in extra blockers and protection to strategically overcome BYU’s solid run defense, which currently ranks seventh nationally in rush defense at 92.2 yards per game, but additionally to limit the Cougar pass rush and give the quarterback more time to find open receivers.

“We have a really good idea of what we’re going to see we just have to do a better job of stopping it,” said Howell.

A key to the pass rush will be getting linebacker Bronson Kaufusi more experience at his new position. Kaufusi, who missed much of fall camp and has only played in three games due to injury, could really help the Cougars' pass rush as he continues to learn and fit into his new position.

“As the season goes on he’s going to continue to get better. He’s going to continue to get more productive and feel more comfortable,” said Poppinga of Kaufusi.

Defensive lineman sophomore Travis Tuiloma explained how it will be important for the defense to get pressure, especially this week as they attempt to contain Fajardo, who is a dual-threat player leading his team in both passing and rushing yards with 1,806 yards of total offense.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us to make sure we are assignment sound in keeping him contained and make sure we don’t give up the big plays,” Tuiloma said.

As the coaches and players continue to seek to clean up their play Howell wants the defensive staff and team to continue to take things one play at a time despite recent struggles.

“That’s how this game goes. You can’t feel too bad about the bads and you can’t feel too good about the goods," he said. "You just have to work on getting better each day."

Many players and coaches have expressed over the last two weeks that they feel often times the players are in the right place to make plays the execution has just simply not been there. The execution will certainly need to be there as BYU faces a Nevada team that is also hungry for a win after dropping three of its last four games — all of which have been by seven points or less.

“We really have got to tighten up our coverage,” said Poppinga. ”We have a lot of guys who really haven’t played much and it’s just getting them experience and just getting reps in practice.”

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Mitch Davis

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